Triple Threat (2019)

Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson | 96 minutes | action, thriller | Actors: Tony Jaa, Tiger Hu Chen, Iko Uwais, Scott Adkins, Celina Jade, Michael Jai White, Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping, JeeJa Yanin, Dominiquie Vandenberg, Ron Smoorenburg, Monica Siu-Kei Mok, Guangbei Zhang, Sile Zhang, Anthony Taic

How he managed it remains to be seen, but for his sixteenth film, Jesse V. Johnson has gathered an all-star cast. In this case, don’t expect Brad Pitt, George Clooney or any other Hollywood icons to contribute. What you can look forward to is a production full of martial arts stars. Scott Adkins, Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, Ron Smoorenburg and Michael Jai White are not little boys in the genre to say the least. In ‘Triple Threat’ these fighters come together and make their fists speak.

In ‘Thriple Threat’, a billionaire’s daughter is threatened. A gang of mercenaries wants to kidnap the woman in order to fill their bank account. To protect the lady, her family enlists the help of three patrons. This trio must fend off the villains. That does not happen with the voice of reason, but through bone breaking and martial arts practices.

So far so good. Johnson has managed to gather a nice group of people. Unfortunately, he did not manage to make a cool genre film. ‘Triple Threat’ is downright mediocre and doesn’t use the talent of the cast. When you cast a star like Iko ‘The Raid’ Uwais, you have to give him something to do. The same goes for Tony ‘Ong Bak’ Jaa and Scott ‘Ninja’ Adkins. These guys are extremely disciplined martial arts stars who have been very successful in previous films. Johnson doesn’t know what to do with his cast and lets them shoot a lot. It’s a shame to deal with such luminaries in physical action.

The battle scenes are fairly well portrayed. Not spectacular, but solid. What remains is a film with a few nice action scenes (far too few), a weak story and poorly English-speaking Asian stars. The potential is there, but it is not being used. Deadly sin!